Along an assembly line, various types of articles, such as, diapers, may be assembled by adding components to and/or otherwise modifying an advancing, continuous web of material. For example, in some processes, advancing webs of material are combined with other advancing webs of material. In other examples, individual components created from advancing webs of material are combined with advancing webs of material, which in turn, are then combined with other advancing webs of material. In some cases, individual components created from advancing web or webs are combined with other individual components created from other advancing web or webs. Webs of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheets, leg cuffs, waist bands, absorbent core components, front and/or back ears, fastening components, and various types of elastic webs and components such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, stretch side panels, and waist elastics. Once the desired component parts are assembled, the advancing webs and component parts are subjected to a final knife cut to separate the webs into discrete diapers or other absorbent articles.
It has increasingly become important to save cost on manufacturing processes. To attempt to save costs, the same or similar processes and equipment has been used to produce articles of various sizes. However, the great disparity in size from an adult incontinence pant to a baby pant has caused issues in this attempt to apply the same or similar processes and equipment. For example, the span of the belt of an adult incontinence pant is relatively greater than that of a baby pant. Thus, due to the high speed at which the manufacturing lines operate, control of this relatively large belt has been an issue. Failure to adequately control the belt may lead to final products that have been assembled incorrectly or that have been folded and packaged incorrectly. Failure to control the belt may also lead to manufacturing downtime due to the assembled or partially assembled product become stuck in one or more process. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a process and equipment which may be used to manufacture multiple sizes of products and, more specifically, to control and advance relatively larger absorbent articles.